Yesterday they announced that certain Bard buff songs, namely the Etude line, the Prelude line, and both Foe Sirvente and Adventurer's Dirge, will now behave like normal songs in that they're Area of Effect normally and Pianissimo will make them single target. How do you guys feel about the change? I rarely go Bard to things anymore and I'm not a Daurdabla Bard so I'm limited to only casting two songs, but I think nowadays, given how most Bards that do "end game" sorts of events have at least the level 90 Daurdabla and that, at least for right now with Embrava still on the table for Scholars, that since Marches aren't near as necessary as they were before, being able to cast Etudes on a party of Melee would be quite good.

The Prelude line would also be good if it was common for there to be a large number of Rangers in a party nowadays, but, at least for what I do event wise, having more than one Ranger in a party is pretty rare, so at least for right now that's not really all that useful.

As for Adventurer's Dirge and Foe Sirvente...all I can say is why would a Bard even have these merited? Even though Nightingale and Troubadour's recast timers are now a static value rather than based on merits, the effects they have now with merits are just too beneficial to not want. Not to mention that, given how the Enmity system works, a traditional "tank" is pretty much a thing of the past and the party(ies) you'd be in would benefit far more from some of your other songs.

I would never merit Sirvente or Dirge. Fully merited Nitro is too nice.

As for Etudes, I can't see myself ever using them. I'd sooner do 3 Minuets and a Madrigal for melee in an Embrava situation or throw in a Scherzo if I was scared of something. If I ever found myself in PT with RNGs I suppose I might do a Prelude, but my LS doesn't really use RNG for anything so I don't see it coming up.

Pretty sure nothing is going to really change; this is just something they're doing for "neatness" and consistency's sake.

In the rare event that people actually used any of these songs, they probably only wanted it single-target to begin with, so I expect to see some ******** about how these people have to use Pianissimo on these songs where they didn't have to before. In my case though, no ***** are given.

When it comes to sitting around not doing anything for long periods of time, only being active for short windows, and marginal changes and sidegrades I'd say FFXI players were the perfect choice for politicians.

The only time I ever used Dirge was on a WHM in a long ugly battle where she was riding the hate line because of having to cure dump on the tank. Because of Minikin, my Balllad 3 +4 was enough to keep her in MP by itself, and Dirge on her was enough to help keep hate on the tank better.

That was one time.

I think a party full of BLMs might like the INT boost as a Dharp third spell. And a melee party won't object to AOE STR+....

____________________________

FFXI: Catwho on Bismarck: Retired December 2014

Thayos wrote:

I can't understand anyone who skips the cutscenes of a Final Fantasy game. That's like going to Texas and not getting barbecue.

Yeah, i have to come back on my earlier statement. I was a bit upset and irritated when it was annouced a while back when i heard stuff went AoE from Single Target, when i wanted them to stay single target...

But then i realized now that it's been implemented. I absolutely NEVER use any of those song anyhow, under any circumstance. So really, nothing changed at all.

Frontliners are perfectly happy with 2x March and 2x Minuet. Backliners are perfectly happy with 2-3x Ballad and 1-2x March for recasts. You can give the frontliners some ACC if there's room for another song when Haste is already capped through other means. Backliners, i've never heard them complain once they're full on Ballads and 25% March.